Ira sniffed the air before looking side to side.
“It smells like cinnamon,” he said.
Luci wrapped her arms around his neck, loving that he was hers to touch. No conflict in what shouldn’t be or couldn’t be. It simply was.
“Elowen was here before you chased her away. She said she left me a present where we first met.” Luci said.
Biting back a smile, Ira ran a finger over her cheek before tucking a strand of hair behind her ear. His hand drifted lower to rest over her neck, and it sent a thrill through her. They hadn’t had much time together, with last-minute wedding planning anda possible succession change. They always made time at dinner for each other, but quiet moments like this were rare.
“Have I told you how incandescently beautiful you are tonight?” he asked.
Luci laughed and dipped her head, but he didn’t let her hide from his words as he lifted her chin with his finger.
“Eyes on me, Cinderella,” he said.
And for the briefest of moments, she was transported back to a time, not so very long ago, where a handsome prince swept her off her feet. A night much like this.
“Are you going to ask me to dance?” she asked, voice thick with memory.
He studied her for a long moment like he was drinking her in, memorizing her. She might have saved him the trouble by reminding him that he’d won her. That she wasn’t going anywhere, but she found she quite liked his eyes on her.
Tucking her hand into his arm, he walked her to the dance floor, oblivious to the eyes and whispers on them. Luci could only imagine the pair they made. Maybe they would commission a portrait just so she could remember every detail. Ignoring all the distractions and the speculation, they found their place on the dance floor and faced one another.
Luci swallowed. “I don’t know how to dance.”
The words were a whisper as they played out this little game. A meeting without masks or secrets. Just two people as they were.
Just as it was before, Ira gave her his best smolder, and she couldn’t keep in the laugh that broke from her.
“That’s quite the power you have, your highness,” she said.
He winked and pulled her in, hand on her waist and on her heart all at once. Everywhere he touched, she belonged to him. So when he took the first step and the second, she followed his lead, knowing he would protect her and love her till his last breath. A future of possibilities that was theirs for the taking.
The music surrounded them, cocooning them in this place of memory and promise.
“I’m going to spin you now,” he said.
Luci didn’t wait for him this time, but met him at the start. She was no longer the woman she was that first dance, but she could appreciate her courage.
As she spun back into his arms, he dipped his mouth to her ear.
“What am I going to do with you in that dress, Lucinda?” he asked.
Just like that, the rules changed. This wasn’t just a memory anymore; the stakes elevated. She might have risen to the occasion if it weren’t for the fact that she was an inferno. Cheeks warming against the heat, Ira smiled, knowing he’d flustered her. It was, after all, one of his favorite pastimes.
“I think you knew what you were doing when you put it on,” he said, spinning her again.
Glass pumpkins give her the strength for this.
“I was simply doing as the bride requested,” she said, feigning indifference.
This time, when he spun her, he caught her with her back to his front while his hand snaked over her stomach, pressing just enough that she might die.
“You’ve never done anything because it was simply requested,” he said.
She stepped away and fixed him with a glare, resuming their dance.
“I believe the first time we did this was for a simple request,” she said.